ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, Va. — A Virginia sheriff’s office says a wanted man who hid in a drainage pipe during a standoff has died from suspected hypothermia.
A Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office statement released Tuesday says authorities were trying to arrest 38-year-old Alberto Jose Cornejo-Alvarez on felony drug charges when he escaped through a creek and concealed himself inside a pipe.
Authorities said they believed he was armed.
The Staunton News Leader reports that after a two-hour standoff, deputies stopped seeing movement inside the pipe and entered it to rescue him from the cold water. The agency says Cornejo-Alvarez’s death at a hospital Monday night was likely hypothermia-related.
The medical examiner is investigating.
